A Sketch of the Buddha's Life
Readings from the Pali Canon
13,055 words
This modest selection of excerpts from the Pali Canon provides a rough sketch of the life of the Buddha. I hope you will find enough in this rather sparse selection to gain at least an inkling both of the range of the Buddhas teachings and of the sweeping trajectory of his extraordinary life....
"I lived in refinement, utmost refinement, total refinement. My father even had lotus ponds made in our palace: one where red lotuses bloomed, one where white lotuses bloomed, one where blue lotuses bloomed, all for my sake. I used no sandalwood that was not from Varanasi. My turban was from Varanasi, as were my tunic, my lower garments, and my outer cloak. A white sunshade was held over me day and night to protect me from cold, heat, dust, dirt, and dew.
"I had three palaces: one for the cold season, one for the hot season, one for the rainy season. During the four months of the rainy season I was entertained in the rainy season palace by minstrels without a single man among them, and I did not once come down from the palace. Whereas the servants, workers, and retainers in other peoples homes are fed meals of lentil soup and broken rice, in my fathers home the servants, workers, and retainers were fed wheat, rice, and meat.
"Even though I was endowed with such fortune, such total refinement, the thought occurred to me: When an untaught, run of the mill person, himself subject to aging, not beyond aging, sees another who is aged, he is horrified, humiliated, and disgusted, oblivious to himself that he too is subject to aging, not beyond aging. If I -- who am subject to aging, not beyond aging -- were to be horrified, humiliated, and disgusted on seeing another person who is aged, that would not be fitting for me. As I noticed this, the typical young persons intoxication with youth entirely dropped away.
"Even though I was endowed with such fortune, such total refinement, the thought occurred to me: When an untaught, run of the mill person, himself subject to illness, not beyond illness, sees another who is ill, he is horrified, humiliated, and disgusted, oblivious to himself that he too is subject to illness, not beyond illness. And if I -- who am subject to illness, not beyond illness -- were to be horrified, humiliated, and disgusted on seeing another person who is ill, that would not be fitting for me. As I noticed this, the healthy persons intoxication with health entirely dropped away.
"Even though I was endowed with such fortune, such total refinement, the thought occurred to me: When an untaught, run of the mill person, himself subject to death, not beyond death, sees another who is dead, he is horrified, humiliated, and disgusted, oblivious to himself that he too is subject to death, not beyond death. And if I -- who am subject to death, not beyond death -- were to be horrified, humiliated, and disgusted on seeing another person who is dead, that would not be fitting for me. As I noticed this, the living persons intoxication with life entirely dropped away."
[AN III.39]